Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Some terms and definitions
- Introduction: Race, racism and social work
- one Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age
- two The growth of xeno-racism and Islamophobia in Britain
- three The catalysers: ‘black’ professionals and the anti-racist movement
- four “Same, same, but different”
- five Antisemitism and anti-racist social work
- six Anti-Roma racism in Europe: past and recent perspectives
- seven In defence of multiculturalism?
- eight Social work and Islamophobia: identity formation among second and third generation Muslim women in north-west England
- nine Institutionalised Islamophobia and the ‘Prevent’ agenda: ‘winning hearts and minds’ or welfare as surveillance and control?
- ten ‘Street-grooming’, sexual abuse and Islamophobia: an anatomy of the Rochdale abuse scandal
- eleven My people?
- twelve Twenty-first century eugenics? A case study about the Merton Test
- thirteen The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration
- Conclusion: Race, racism and social work today: some concluding thoughts
- Bibliography
- Index
one - Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Some terms and definitions
- Introduction: Race, racism and social work
- one Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age
- two The growth of xeno-racism and Islamophobia in Britain
- three The catalysers: ‘black’ professionals and the anti-racist movement
- four “Same, same, but different”
- five Antisemitism and anti-racist social work
- six Anti-Roma racism in Europe: past and recent perspectives
- seven In defence of multiculturalism?
- eight Social work and Islamophobia: identity formation among second and third generation Muslim women in north-west England
- nine Institutionalised Islamophobia and the ‘Prevent’ agenda: ‘winning hearts and minds’ or welfare as surveillance and control?
- ten ‘Street-grooming’, sexual abuse and Islamophobia: an anatomy of the Rochdale abuse scandal
- eleven My people?
- twelve Twenty-first century eugenics? A case study about the Merton Test
- thirteen The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration
- Conclusion: Race, racism and social work today: some concluding thoughts
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this chapter Singh looks back at the development of anti-racist social work and traces the intellectual journey it has been through over the last 20 years. The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) domain 8 requires social workers to be aware of the changing contexts within which social work takes place, and social work and social care organizations operate and function. The chapter looks back at the recent history of anti-racist social work and ‘sets the scene’ for many of the debates that follow. Singh argues that we need to rethink our understandings of anti-racism in the context of shifting politics and race, difference and diversity.
Introduction
In the face of significant shifts in ‘race’ equality policies and discourses within social welfare, from those rooted in neo-Marxist critiques of post-colonial Western capitalist societies to ones based on neoliberal market models, this chapter sets out an argument for the need for a new reinvigorated anti-racist social work project. The chapter does not seek to offer a detailed step-by-step ‘how to do guide’, but rather it offers an account of the historical, ideological and political contexts within which ideas associated with anti-racist social work have developed over the past 35 years. It begins by highlighting the emergence of municipal anti-racist social work, which was born out of broader anti-racist social movements of the late 1970s and 1980s. It then goes on show how anti-racist social work morphed into individualised ‘anti-oppressive’ and ‘anti-discriminatory’ practice and ‘diversity awareness’ from the 1990s to the present period. In doing so, the chapter seeks to argue that a series of political and ideological factors have led to a significant weakening of anti-racism within public welfare in general and social work in particular. At the policy level, we have seen a displacing of anti-racism by notions of managing diversity and anti-discriminatory practice. At the community level there has been a fragmentation of old anti-racist collectivities built upon race/class solidarity and, at the same time, an assertion of ethno-religious-communal identity-based politics. At the professional level anti-racist social work has been unable to evolve models to reflect the shifting discourses of ‘race’ and the emergence of new or ‘xeno-racism’ that is not necessarily built on black/white racial binaries (Sivanandan 2006; see also Fekete, Chapter Two, this volume).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Race, Racism and Social WorkContemporary Issues and Debates, pp. 17 - 32Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2013